The Squeeze - Dr. Amen: A Revolution in Brain Health

Episode Date: March 29, 2023

TW: suicide  The Lautners are joined by psychiatrist and 18-time best-selling author, Dr. Amen, who’s on a mission to end the concept of mental illness and talk about brain health. They discuss the Launters’ brain scans from The Amen Clinic, how mental hygiene is equally as important as washing your hands, and the impact that caffeine, alcohol, and marijuana can have on your brain. We learn how Dr. Amen got into psychiatry, and hear about some of his most inspiring (and famous!) patients. He also discusses his most recent book, Change Your Brain Every Day, the importance of a healthy diet, and the dangers of social media. This episode offers an informative look at the field of psychiatry and daily practices to optimize your brain with one of the most influential voices in the industry—a must-listen for anyone interested in improving their mental health and overall well-being!  Be sure to check out Dr. Amen’s most recent book, Change Your Brain Every Day at danielamenmd.com/change-your-brain-everyday and learn about his work at amenclinics.com. Plus, be sure to follow Dr. Amen on Instagram @doc_amen and TikTok @docamen  Tay’s episode of Scan My Brain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSvyF0kjgOI  Thanks to our awesome sponsor for making this episode possible:   Athletic Greens — Go to athleticgreens.com/SQUEEZE for a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free travel packs with your first purchase  To email us your questions or share your story, you can reach out to [e-mail].  Be sure to rate, review, and follow the podcast so you don't miss an episode! Plus, follow us on Instagram, @thesqueeze and personally @taylautner and @taylorlautner. To learn more from The Lemons Foundation, follow @lemonsbytay on Instagram and visit lemonsbytay.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Sondergare Go to your Reisadviseur Onsonicars. When life gives you lemons What do you do with them? Over here at the squeeze We talk about it.

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of The Squeeze. I am your host, Taylor Lautner. Yep. It's me too. Yeha. Ladies and gentlemen, gentlemen, who we.

Well, we just got done recording an amazing episode with Dr. Aiman. Yep. We both love and respect Dr. Aiman so much, Tay's been telling me about him for a while. Did you follow him on, did you find him like on Instagram originally? I mean, I had heard of him, but I randomly went to this like conference. It was like four psychiatrists, psychologists to renew their licenses. And they have like a bunch of booths and whatnot.

And his booth was there. And my friend who I was with was like, have you heard of Dr. Aman? I was like, have. I don't really know that much. We ended up going over and talking to the guy that was running the booth. Literally for like 40 minutes, we were there. He was just telling me all about the A-Men clinics, everything they do, Remy's butt. You guys, if you're listening to this, you need to just go onto YouTube.

First of all, you need to subscribe. Thank you, everyone that subscribed gives the video a thumbs up. But secondly, you get to see these cute animals that just graze through. They're cute, but Rums kind of. on one right now. Yeah, Remy, Remy dropped her baby on the floor right next to me

and she just wanted, come on, bring it up, come on, show everyone your baby. Here we go. Oh, no, oh, oh, oh, oh, well, you're out of camera.

This is her baby. That, surprisingly, she has not broken, but we did have to cut the ears off. Anyways, back to my story. I ended up talking to this guy for, you know, 40 minutes,

just about everything Eamon does and, you know, everything from brain health, mental health, his brain scans, everything. And then I think then I found him on Instagram and followed him. And we started messaging and then ended in us going down to his Costa Mesa clinic.

It was Costa Mesa, right? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And getting our brain scan. Yep. And that was so fun. I did an episode of scan my brain with him, which we'll link below, which was so fun to learn, you know, why I do things I do, what my brain looks like. You know, I love being able to have a visual input.

Yeah. Put a picture. He pinpointed some things for Tay that he didn't even know about. Yeah. And it just all was true. And it like really clicked for you and made so much sense, you know, why you do certain things, feel certain ways. And he's like, well, this is exactly why. And I'm not guessing that.

I'm showing it to you right here on your brain scan. Yeah. Yeah. And honestly, I mean, I have so many takeaways from him. But if you follow me on social, I've been sharing a lot about cutting out caffeine, like not drinking coffee anymore because I found that the caffeine was really driving anxiety for me. And Dr. Ayman, you know, that's a very big thing of his is to cut caffeine out. That's one of his like top five things, you know.

Sorry coffee lovers. I know. Hey, decalf. I had decaf this morning. And honestly for me, the caffeine, I've said this my entire. life. I would have like four cups of coffee a day and I, the caffeine, I wouldn't drink coffee to, you know, feel, you know, simulated or jolt. Yeah. I would just drink it because I was definitely addicted to it because I get headaches now. I'm, you know, when I don't drink coffee, I get a headache.

Yeah. But I just more so did it because it was like a routine. Yeah. I think that was honestly the biggest thing, you know, having comfort of sitting, you know, holding your coffee cup, drinking your coffee, doing your morning, whatever it was. But now, I think that was, but now, I think that was, Now with decaf, I feel like it's literally this. I don't feel any, I don't feel anxious now with the decaf. Yeah. But even, you know, when I'm at my computer doing work in the morning, I feel as productive as I thought I was with actual normal coffee. Long story short, Dr. Raymond's a very large reason why that has happened.

So we've just really been, you know, learning a lot from him. Yeah, he's got a lot of little acronyms and, like, simple tools or like tricks that you can implement in your life. One that we've been trying to do is, you know, you wake up every day and you're like, today's going to be a great day. And I feel like it always ends up happening the mornings that we do do that. You said do-do. Uh-huh.

The mornings we end up doing that, the day feels like crap or like it ends up, we see everything that goes wrong. But I feel like if we continue to, you know, do that, it's going to take time. But just sending your brain to that positive mode when you wake up and set up, oh, I got to go to work. Oh, I got to do this. It's going to be a long day. Yeah. Making, hey, I get to go to work.

I get to do this. Today's going to be a great day. That's such a good way to start. Yeah. Some things he talks about are so simple because the brain is so sensitive. and sometimes the difference that it makes to your brain and then your day, just by waking up and having a positive outlook, then also going to bed at night and thinking about,

he's going to touch on this in the episode, but thinking about the top three favorite parts of your day. I feel like so many of us, including myself, go to bed and think about the worst parts of the day. Yeah. And the parts of tomorrow, you're dreading. And that's really not going to set yourself up for success. So he's got so many tips and tricks that you can start implementing immediately.

And he's got a number. I believe he has 18 best-selling books. Oh, my gosh. The guy is just unstoppable. But his most recent book, Change Your Brain Every Day, is, He referred to it as like a greatest hits album, which is perfect because if you're like me and it's a little tough to get you reading something, it's concise and it takes just like the most important things.

There's 366 pages. Because next year is a leap year. So he wanted to make sure there was, you know, all the days in there. Yeah. But yeah, it doesn't take much time to read it every day. It's so funny because he touched on this as well. He says a lot of good things. You know, every day we think that we need to like put time aside to like work out for our physical health, put time aside to do this and that.

It's like, well, you know what's just as important as your physical health? your mental health. So put 15, 20 minutes aside per day to work out your mental health. And this book of his is perfect for that. Yeah. So highly recommend everybody getting that. Yeah, we'll leave a link below for it and for where you can find Dr. Ayman on Instagram, TikTok, his clinics.

But let's jump into this episode. Let's get into it. Enjoy everyone. This is a treat. Yeah, it was. Thank you, Dr. Amen. Hello, Dr. Amon. Thank you so much for joining us at The Squeeze. Well, what a joy for me to be with you.

Thank you for helping me spread the message of brain health. Oh, my gosh, of course. We believe in that same message. We both recently got scanned by you. When we left, honestly, one of the things that stuck out to both of us, but me really was just how much you love your job. Yeah. And it's so inspiring to be around people that genuinely love what they're doing.

Yeah. And I mean, it fires me up to, you know, go out and change the world and change myself and do all these things. And when we were in the car driving back home, I was just like, wow, this guy just loves what he's doing. It's so passionate about it. And you can just see, like, the heart that he's. has behind it. So thank you for, you know, doing everything that you're doing. It's, you know, there's not a lot of words that can describe because you've, you've done a lot in your career, but we are so thankful for people like you who have these jobs and just, you know.

Help people on a daily basis, but like you do it for the right reasons. Like we could just see that joy in your eye when you talked about whatever it was. If, if the, world could care and love their job half as much as you do, the world would be a pretty freaking cool place. Thank you. You know, it's always been the stories that keep me driven and motivated. And as an actor, it's the stories, right? When you really connect with the character or, you know, a purpose of the story.

story. And when I started looking at the brain 32 years ago, I got no end of grief from my colleagues because psychiatrists don't look. And I'm like, oh, that's crazy. Right. I'm a psychiatrist. I know how to diagnose crazy. And the criticism was so painful. But it was the stories of transformation that always kept me going. And now it's a mission to end the concept of mental illness. We need to get rid of that and talk about, do you love your brain? Are you doing the right things for your brain?

It's brain health. Everybody wants a better brain. Nobody really wants to see a shrink. Yeah, I love how just your philosophy on Like, of course, you support mental health, but brain health is such a big part of that. You know, our brains are so powerful and there's so much of our brains we don't understand. And there's so many things that the smallest thing can affect our brain and then cause a ripple effect of stuff. So that's really like learned a lot from you through that process.

So something as you guys know that has been a huge part of my mental health journey, Taylor's Mental Health Journey, journeys as individuals, and as a couple, has been therapy. Amen. And that is why I am so excited to share our next sponsor with you guys, which is cerebral. Cerebral is here to help you achieve your mental wellness goals

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There's no, oh, I don't have time to go drive. It's too long of a drive. No, you can do it on your lunch break. You can do it before work, after work. And it's honestly just, it's convenient. Yeah. It's convenient and they have great therapists. Yeah.

And it's, it'll just keep you accountable. too. So we highly, highly encourage that you guys check out cerebral because therapy is just then wonders for us. And we know it'll do the same for you. To get started on your path towards better mental health, cerebral is giving our listeners 15% off their first month of online therapy, medication, or both. Get started at cerebral.com slash podcasts and use code the squeeze to make 24 your best year yet. That's Cerebral C-E-R-E-B-R-A-L.com slash podcast and use code the squeeze.

Offer is only valid on monthly plans. Other exclusions may apply. C-S-Sype for details. Get going on that therapy. Do you want to pull from our jar? Oh, yes. So we start each episode with a little fun icebreaker called Citrus Got Real. and since you're not here in person,

I am going to choose for you in this beautiful jar of lemonade. We have some random questions, very, very intense questions. They're not. And I'm going to pluck one for you. Okay, Dr. Raymond, if you could only wear one pair of shoes

for the rest of your life, what would they be? And why? Shoes are so important to me. My primary, one of my primary values is comfort. And we'd go to a special event and my wife would say black tennis shoes are not dress shoes. And I'm like, no, really, look, you can't tell.

Oh, my gosh. So if I could only wear one pair of shoes for the rest of my life, it would be Brooks black tennis shoes. Okay. Most 14. Okay. Oh. Because that, it passes for the comfort, but you also make it work for, you know, anything.

If I'm on Dr. Phil, it works. Great. Because, you know, I mean, I just, I realize today I'm wearing red, but most of the time when I'm doing television or something, I'm in black. And it just sort of blends in. and then my feet don't hurt. It's why I've never understood high heels. I thought that's just torture for people. But who am I to say?

Yeah. Well, yeah. Kudos to you because I don't really wear high heels for that reason. It's a rare occasion. I'm very comfy. I think my answer to this question would probably be crocs. Okay. I love crocs.

I don't know why. Crocs are comfy. They're so comfy. They have ones that are fuzzy lined on the inside. Oh, yeah. They're great for night shift when it's cold. They have ones that are like platform.

So you can look fashionable in your crocs. Yeah. Crocs are fun. Do you own any pairs of crocs? I don't. I didn't know they had fuzz inside. Some of them do for the wintertime when it's chilly. But yeah, they got some cool stuff these days.

You should check out their website. Plug the crox. Right. That's funny. So you kind of already touched on this, but through, you know, like loving the stories of psychiatry, was there a moment that you were like, did you go into medical soap being like, I want to be a psychiatrist? Or was there a point in time growing up or did you experience something that made you be like, oh, this is, I want to get into psychiatry.

I'm really interested in, you know, the brain and how it works. So the short story is I wanted to be a veterinarian. when I was a teenager, but Vietnam was going on. The government still had a draft, and I was going to be drafted. And I signed up to be a veterinarian's assistant in the military and, you know, take care of some of the big animals and do meat inspection, things like that. And my recruiter lied to me. And I ended up as an infantry medic where really my love is. of medicine was born. But about a year into it, I realized I didn't like being shot at.

It was, I didn't like it. It was just not my thing. And so I got retrained as an x-ray technician and developed a passion for medical imaging, as our professors used to say, how do you know unless you look? And then in 1975, I got out of the army, finished college, went to medical school, And when I was a second year medical student, I got married to my childhood sweetheart. And two months later, she tried to kill herself. And I took her to see a wonderful psychiatrist. And I was horrified because I had never been around somebody who, you know, had a very serious mental illness. And I'm like completely freaked out.

take her to see the chief of psychiatry at Oral Roberts University, which is where I went to medical school. And I came to realize if he helped her, which he did, it wouldn't just help her, that ultimately it would help me, because I'd be less stressed, it would help our children. And when we got married, she had a two-year-old that I ended up adopting, so it would help him. Wow. And ultimately it would help her grandchildren as her children would be raised by someone who was happier and more stable. So back in 1979, I mean, this was clearly a crisis in my life, in her life. And I just saw that psychiatrists have the ability to change generations of people.

And I have been in love with it every day for the past 44 years. But I fell in love with the only medical specialty that never looks at the organ it treats. And given that I was an x-ray technician and love medical imaging, I was agitating my professors. I'm like, well, why aren't we looking at the brain? The brains are organ. Why did neurologists have the brain and we have the mind? we lost because, you know, the mind is sort of big and hard to define. And so I agitated for it. In 1991, started looking at the brain on almost all of my patients. And it just radically changed everything.

I never really thought. I was a top neuroscience student in medical school. But until I saw my own brain, I never really cared about it. And my guess is after both of you saw your brain, you think about it more. Yeah. It's such a thing that you like never think about. It's like, you know we all have a brain. Yeah. It's in there somewhere. Yeah.

But it's true. It's, I feel like once you see it, you, you know, sit with somebody like yourself and dissect it and be like, well, this is what's going on up here. See this area? Well, that's related to this. And you help us like pinpoint all. those things, it does. It makes you care a whole lot more about your brain than just knowing it's up there somewhere doing something. Yeah, and I'm like a visual learner too. So like seeing that and like being able to put like a, oh, this, this section's lit up because of this or this is dented because

of this. Like it helps, you know, we kind of understand it more and like relate to it. Yeah. I mean, your triangle was lit up like a Christmas tree. Oh, it was a diamond. Oh, Diamond. Sorry, sorry, sorry. You're just missing one point. Sorry, Dr. Amy. Hey, you're... I'm glad you guys are just talking about it. That's the first step, right? Yeah. And I just watched yesterday our episode,

Taylor, it's going to... And it's so good. I'm just so proud of you. But how would you know that you still have the effects of a concussion that you still have the effects of a concussion that happened many, many years ago, unless you actually look. Yeah, no idea. And you're young enough that we can repair it and give you, because you're already awesome. Well, what if I can help give you 10% more brain function? It just means you get to be more awesome.

And if we think of it that way, as opposed to there's something, the matter with you because nobody wants anything to be the matter. And it's it's about optimization rather than about shame. Yeah. Yeah. Honestly, I think the biggest thing I actually just watched it back to. I loved re-listening to it and like relearning it because it's a lot to digest. I feel like I'm going to have to watch it a few more times to like fully understand it. But just a fun fact, I feel like the biggest thing My biggest takeaway since then has honestly been cutting out caffeine has been huge for me. And I didn't even realize. I always said like coffee didn't have an effect on me because like the caffeine itself

didn't give me energy. I always just drank it because I enjoy coffee and I would get headaches if I wouldn't drink it. But once I actually cut it out, I think I even went like a week. And then it was like a Sunday and we didn't have anything. I was like, okay, if I get a little anxious from this, it's okay. I don't have anything today. I really want coffee. I don't have decaf in the house.

And I ended up 30 minutes an hour later. I was anxious. Even we went out to dinner, I think like last week. And I ordered tea and we were leaving. And I was like, oh, I feel something in my chest. And I was like, oh, the tea was probably caffeinated. I should have asked her decaf tea. I didn't realize that.

But it's crazy how something I didn't think had an effect on me once I actually removed it. I was like, oh, wow, that actually really had a grip on me. Yeah. And most people, they just have no clue because they're not thinking about it. And once you think about your brain and then there's this mother tiny habit, I worked with a group at Stanford for six months, the persuasive tech lab on how people change. And BJ Fogg actually wrote a book called Tiny Habits. that was really great.

And we came up with 50 tiny habits for the brain. But the most important one is whenever you go to do something, just ask yourself, this is good for my brain or bad for it. And if you love yourself, you choose good, way more than bad. And, you know, many people think alcohol is a health food, marijuana is innocuous, and caffeine, well, everybody should do it. And it's like, but caffeine, alcohol, and marijuana all decrease blood flow to the brain. And if you decrease blood flow to an organ, you deprive it of the nutrients it needs. And you also prevent it from taking away all the toxins

that build up. And so if you can do your life without caffeine, well, why the heck not? And people go, oh, how can you have any fun? And I love that question. We have a high school course that's in seven countries. We teach kids to love and care for their brains. And invariably, when we do this lesson on things to avoid,

it's a 14-year-old boy. It's never a girl. It's always a boy. raises his hand and go, how can you have any fun? And so we play a game with them called Who Has More Fun? The person with the good brain or the person with the bad brain. Who gets the girl and gets to keep her because he doesn't act like an idiot? The kid with the good brain or the kid with the bad brain.

Who gets into the college they want to get into. Who has, you know, the coolest jobs, takes the cool. You know, it's brain. And when you really ask yourself, like if I really ask myself, what do I want? I mean, what do I really want? I want energy. I want memory. I want happiness.

I want connection. I want purpose. And so the alcohol, marijuana, and caffeine don't fad because I need a healthy brain to have what I really want. And a lot of those, a lot of those things, correct me if I'm wrong here, I am not the expert. But it seems like a lot of those things, sure, can give you temporary fun. But in the long term, they're just destroying things that is going to lead to a lot less fun in your future. So, you know, the alcohol, the whatever. Yeah, you might feel fun for a couple hours.

But then one, you're going to wake up the next morning, not feel so fun. And you're going to wake up when you're 50, 60, and really not feel so fun. So you can do things to feel better now, not later, just which you're describing. Or we can do things to feel better now. And like when it comes to food, Drew Carey, the famous. comedian lost a whole bunch of weight and kept it off. And I heard him interviewed and he said eating crappy food isn't a reward. It's a punishment. And I went, oh, he's going to stay healthy because he has the right mindset. Too many people are like Haven. So Haven, I have five grandchildren.

And Haven is four. And Haven wants what she wants when she wants it. And we'll do virtually anything to get it. Well, she's four. But if you still have that mindset when you're 32, that's not a good thing. And ultimately, when it comes to food, people go, but I love it. And it's like, well, does it love you back?

And I don't know if either of you've ever been in a bad relationship. Yeah. But I have. And I'm not doing that anymore. I'm married to my best friend. And I'm damn sure not doing it with food. That I love to eat. I love great food.

And last night I had just the best dinner. So people go, oh, being healthy is hard. No, being sick is hard. Being healthy, just you have to change your habits. I mean, you have habits now. Are they serving you or do they hurt you? So whenever you ask yourself, whenever you eat something, do I love it? And does it love me?

Like every night I have brain healthy hot chocolate, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, keeping teaspoon of raw organic cacao and a little bit of chocolate stevia, mix it in a blender. It's like 80 calories. and it's great for you. Now, if you go to Starbucks, not picking on Starbucks, but it's 400 calories, it's filled with sugar, and it's not good for you.

And so it just takes a little bit of energy, and people go, oh, it's so expensive. I'm like, if your brain's not right, that's really expensive. It's just a bit of an investment in your, longevity. And it's so good when your brain is healthy, your relationships are better because you and I would agree that relationships require tact and forethought. And if your brain's not right,

you end up saying everything you think rather than, is this going to help my relationship or is it going to hurt it. Like, I'm very clear with what I want with my wife, kind, caring, loving, supportive, passionate relationship. I always want that, always, but I don't always feel like that. I get these rude thoughts that pop up in my head and I almost always don't say them. I mean, sometimes. And the times I say them, I haven't slept or I haven't eaten right or I believe every stupid thing, I think, right? And so being focused on what you want and then matching your behavior over time, you get what you want. Even just as of recently, I feel like over the past couple years, we've definitely gotten into just like eating healthier food, you know, like really knowing

like the difference of processed foods or the kinds of oils that are in foods, the sugars that are in foods and yes it is more expensive but my body feels so good when I'm eating those healthy foods and then let's say we go travel somewhere and you know I'm ordering room service I'm eating food that is processed and isn't the best I don't have energy I feel like crap like it's once you make the change it's so evident what you were lacking yeah prior to it yeah really opens up your eyes. Yeah. Okay. Can we jump into your books because you've written a lot of us. A trillion of them. You have several, several bestsellers, but your most recent book, Change Your Brain Every Day. Could you tell us and our listeners and watchers what prompted you to write that one and why now?

Well, thank you so much for asking. This is one of my favorite books. I mean, books are like children, so you're not supposed to have favorites, I suppose. But what I did with this book is, you know, right at the beginning of the pandemic, my book, The End of Mental Illness, which I really love that book, it came out March 3rd, 2020. And I was in this room on March 10th, getting ready to go to New York to be on a national television show where I'd scan the host. I was so excited. And the producer called me and said they were closing New York.

And so I remember sitting at this desk and I wrote, mental hygiene is just as important as washing your hand. because of our reaction to the pandemic, I predicted they were going to spawn a mental health pandemic, which is exactly what happened. Exactly. It just crystallized to me. Brain and mental health are daily practices. Just like spiritual health is a daily practice.

Just like physical health is a daily practice. Well, brain and mental health, they are daily. practices. So what I did, given that, you know, I have 18 bestsellers, I'm like, I'm going to write a daily reader where I'm going to take the most important things I've ever said or thought about or tell my patients. And I'm going to put it in a one-year reader. So if you spent a year every day on my psychiatrist's couch, what would you learn? And I just love this so much

because why it's 366 rather than 365 is next year's leap year. So I wanted to give you a whole year. And it's a simple essay and then a habit or a question or an action stuff. And if you just do this within two or three weeks, you will love your brain. You'll start making better decisions.

Wow. Your body will feel younger, better, and your mind is going to feel clear. Yeah. And so in many ways, it's sort of like Simon and Garfunkel's greatest hits. It's like the best things I've done, all wrapped in one. Yeah. It truly is such a smart investment. because like you said, it's like sitting down on the couch with you every single day and getting the best advice and think about how much you know that would normally cost.

Or you can buy your book and get these free sessions every day. And if you're like me, I'm not the biggest reader in the world. But what's great about that book is it's concise. It's your greatest hits. You know, you take the most important things and, you know, spend 15, 20 minutes each day and get a free therapy session and learn some stuff that, you know, you wouldn't know otherwise. And it really is a great book and a wonderful investment for anybody listening. Yeah. And in it, you share a lot about, you know, stories with patients that you've had that you've helped improve their brain health.

if there's like one story that sticks out to you that you'd want to share. With us and with our listeners, what story would that be? Oh, there's so many of them. One of my favorite stories is I've been Miley Cyrus's doctor for 11 years. And she came out publicly with that and spent like 10 minutes on Joe Rogan talking about me. And at the beginning of the pandemic, she did bright-minded a show. to help people with their mental health. And I was her first guest.

And, you know, like many celebrities, she'd come, she'd not. She'd do what I say, mostly not. But about three and a half years ago, it clicked for her. And one of my favorite stories is marijuana was a big deal for her. And she was sort of the poster child for it. And I was always trying to think of creative ways. to get her to see it as trouble. And one day I realized she was an animal lover.

And so I said, hey, today I'm going to teach you about the hippocampus. So the hippocampus are two large structures in the inside of your temporal lobe, so underneath your temples and behind your eyes, and they're involved with mood and memory. And it's called the hippocampus, which is Greek for six. sea horse because they're shaped sort of like a seahorse. And I said, every day your brain produces 700 new hippocampal stem cells or every day your brain is producing 700 new baby sea horses. And I saw her eyes get really big. And I said, marijuana kills them. Marijuana constricts blood flow.

They don't get the nourishment they need. They die. Put you at risk for memory problems. Put you at risk for depression. And she looked at me and she said, Dr. Amon, that is so unfair. You know I love animals. Oh, my gosh. But it planted the sea that, you know, it's like, Miley,

I want you to care way more about your brain cells. than any animal. I want you to love them because you can't get them back. Warren Buffett has two rules for investing. Rule number one, never lose money. Rule number two is never forget rule number one. And my rules for brain health is rule number one,

never lose brain cells. And rule number two is don't forget rule number one, Because you can recover from financial losses way easier than you can recover from brain cell loss. And she's now the poster child for brain health. I am so proud of her. And her song Flowers, I don't know if you've heard it, but it's literally the number one song in the world. And it's about self-love. just gives me goosebumps.

Well, that's awesome. Congrats to you and her. She definitely seems to be flourishing. And I know a lot of that is, you know, with your help. So you should feel awesome. Okay, this question's a, it's a little bit broad, but let me know if you think there is a somewhat concise answer. What are you seeing in our culture,

today and your research that suggests now more than ever we need to pay more attention to our brain health? So in Change Your Brain Every Day, I think there's maybe 30 days where I write, if I was an evil ruler and I wanted to create mental illness, what would I do? And I basically create American society. Yeah. You have little kids gadgets that were purposefully meant to be addictive, to steal their dopamine, steal their attention spans,

and make them constantly compare themselves to fake images, making them feel less than other people. Social media can clearly be good. And it can clearly be harmful, especially to developing brains. If I was an evil ruler, I'd create the food system in the United States that is based on sugar and processed foods and foods that quickly turn to sugar, raised with pesticides that are pro-inflammatory and are driving. the obesity epidemic. I would also create our product industry that is loaded with phthalates and paraben, fragrances, toxic products, toxins. One simple suggestion is I think everybody should just download Think Dirty. It's a free app. It's not what you think it is. It lets you scan your personal

products and it'll tell you on a scale of one to ten how quickly they're killing you. And we've seen, like for 50 years, I shaved with barbosol. And on a scale of zero to ten, where zero is healthy and ten is kill you early. Yeah. It's a nine. Wow. And I'm like every day, because you know, whatever goes on your body goes in your body and affects your body.

And so from your deodorant to your shampoo, to your shaving cream, to the makeup you put on, is it loaded with toxins? 60% of the lipstick sold in the United States has lead in it. I often call it the kiss of death, because lead is clearly a neurotoxin. And then if we add to that, the news, which we might agree the news is no longer the news.

The news is meant to get eyeballs, which means if it bleeds, it leads. And it's really meant to get people angry and irritated and scare them. So you still pay attention to it. And it is dividing this country along social and political lines. like I've never seen in my 68 years, and that societal political division is being played out in a negative way on the school grounds of our children.

So there are a lot of factors. Now, I have great hope because where there's a problem, there's a solution, and the solution starts with, in fact, the cookbook I'm going to send you. is called the Brain Warriors Way cook. So I believe we're in a war for the health of our brains. And because everywhere you go, someone's trying to shove bad food down your throat. Yeah.

Yeah. That if you're just armed and you're aware, you start making better decisions. I mean, the reason to buy organic produce is because it's not raised with, pesticides. And it's like, so why don't you want pesticides? I mean, something that's simple. Well, why don't you want pesticides? Because you have a hundred trillion bugs in your gut. A hundred trillion. And people think of that initially and they're like, ew. No, they're your defense force. So I was in the Army for 10 years. And it's sort of critical to have a military force to protect you against outside invaders.

Well, in your intestinal tract, you have a hundred trillion bugs that protect you. They detoxify food. They make neurotransmitters. They help make vitamins. They process hormones. They digest your food. They're really important to you. And what kills bugs, pesticides.

and the overuse of antibiotics. So any of my patients, if they had a lot of ear infections when they were children, that's really important for me to know because, oh, we have to repair your gut because there's this huge connection between the health of your gut and the health of your brain. Yeah, I love a good metaphor painting the picture and that really. I ended the picture for me. I imagine a little cartoon, little buggies in our intestines. Yeah.

Well, and when you were a nurse, you know, you are a nurse, but when during the pandemic and you get thrown into the whole COVID situation, people are getting put on antibiotics left and right, left and right, left and right. And very few people are thinking, if I put you on an antibiotic, am I going to protect your microbiome, or at least am I going to teach you to rebuild? your microbiome with probiotics and fiber. So fiber is what actually feeds the defense force, your microbiome. So having a diet rich in plants is really critical.

What are some daily practices that each of us should start doing to help our brains if there is a couple that you would recommend? Start every day with today is going to be a great day. Yes. Because you direct your mind to what's right rather than what's wrong. Evolutionarily, we grew up to be negative because that protected us. If we woke up afraid, then we're less likely to be eaten by whatever animal that was going to eat us. But we don't need to do that anymore. But we need to train our mind.

to look for what's right rather than what's wrong. I think every day people should take a multiple vitamin, a high-quality omega-3 fatty acid supplement, and vitamin D. Brand new study came out last week that said people who take a vitamin D supplement have a 40% less risk of getting Alzheimer's disease. Well, they're dirt, deep, and how simple is that? So I think nourish your brain. And whenever you feel sad, mad, nervous, or out of control, write down what you're thinking.

It's so helpful. Because when you write down, I call them ants, automatic negative thoughts. When you write them down, you get them out of your head. and then ask yourself if it's true. And then what I really love, which is so stinking simple, is write down the bad thought. Tanna never listens to me. I've had that thought.

And then write the opposite of the thought. Tana does listen to me. And then just meditate on what's true. Because I'm not a big fan of positive thinking. I'm a huge fan of accurate thinking. There's a verse in the New Testament, John 832, know the truth, and the truth will set you free. And I always want to tell myself the truth with a positive spin.

And the last thing I do before I go to bed at night, and I've done this for a decade, is I say a prayer. and then I go, what went well today. I started at the beginning of the day, right when I wake up, and I just go hour by hour looking for what I loved about the day, because what that does is it sets your dreams up to be more positive. And if you do that for just three weeks, your baseline level of happiness will go up.

And that's free. Really? I mean, so much of what we talked about, it's just, it's not expensive. Sick is expensive. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like whether we are trying to do it or not, I think a lot of it is just subconsciously. I think a lot of us do the exact opposite of what you just said.

I think we go to bed at night thinking about how stressed we are over, you know, the bad things that happened earlier today and what we're going to have to deal with tomorrow when we wake up. So I think, you know, and I'm speaking for myself here. When I go to bed, I need to think more about what I was thankful for today and less, you know, about what was stressful in what I have come in my way tomorrow. And it's a discipline. It's a practice, which is why change your brain every day to daily practice. And when you first started acting, you probably weren't awesome. You probably like had to do it again and again and again. And over time, it became an unconscious skill where you were just great at it. And mental health, brain health, it's the same thing. Initially,

It's hard because you don't have the connections, the neuronal connections to make it easy. But the more you do it, the better you get at it. And it then changes your baseline level of happiness. And, you know, I know for me, I was 28 years old and in my psychiatric residency, when one of my professors said, you don't have to believe every stupid thing you think. And I'm like,

well, I believe everything I think. And I mean, it was such a revelation. And working that over years has just really helped to give me a level of peace despite the haters I have in the world. Hey, we all got them.

If there's anybody listening that knows they need to and want to change their brain health, but are overwhelmed when trying to decide where to start, what advice would you give that person? You know, that's such a great question. And it reminds me of one of the early stories in the book, her name was Nancy. She was 83 when I met her. and when she was 80, she was overweight, she was depressed, she was in chronic pain, she wouldn't get off the couch. Her family was really worried about her.

And she found my book, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, in a used bookstore at the University of Oxford for 50 cents. And she read it and she said she was riveted, which made me happy. And she wrote down all the things to do. And she's like, there's way too much. Yeah. So I'm just going to do one thing at a time. And the first thing she did was she drank more water. And the idea is drink half your weight in ounces every day.

So I'm 140 pounds. That means I should have 70 ounces of water every day. Well, she was 200 pounds. So she had 100 ounces of water every day. and she said, that got me off the couch. I had to pee all the time. I was on the couch. But just the fact that she was up, she felt better.

And then she took supplements, multiple vitamin, omega-3 fatty acid, fish oil, and vitamin D. And she said her mood soar. So she was probably living with a nutrient deficiency, even though she was overweight because, of the food she was eating, she was living with a nutrient deficiency. And then she said, I started walking because my pain went down with the omega-3 fatty acid. She started walking, and then she started playing tennis.

And then what I think of the world's best brain game, table tennis, she said she felt better still. and then she changed her diet. And she said, I didn't deprive myself of anything. I just ate the good food first. So there was no room for the bad food. And I felt like unbelievably good. And then I started to engage in new learning. I started to learn French, started to play the guitar.

And when I met her, she was learning three languages. And then I taught my family. because in the book I talk about get it, get this information. Then you have to give it away, just like both of you are doing today by sharing my work with your audience. You have to give it away because it is in the act of giving that you create your own support group, making it more likely you'll stay on the program. And for her 83rd birthday, she flew from the United Kingdom to Costa Mesa, which is one of our clinics in Southern California, where I was. And my office manager said, you have to meet Nancy and hear her story.

And about 10 minutes into listening to her story, I start to cry because she's the reason I do what I do. Wow. and she gave herself a scan for her 83rd birthday. So at Amen Clinics, we do a study called SPECT that looks at blood flow and activity. And 83 is generally bad news for the brain. You know, as we age, our skin falls off our face. Well, that same process happens in the brain. But her brain was stunning.

And it looked like a 40-year-old. year old's brain. And when she saw it, she started to cry. And she said, a year ago, it wouldn't have been like this. Wow. And she said, I used to be like this. And she blew out her cheeks. Oh, my gosh. And she said, now I'm not. And I lost five stones. I'm like, what's that? Because I had no idea. I lost 70 pounds. Wow. Wow. Incredible. What a story. I know. How encouraging. And I mean, you just have so many of these stories. But where can people learn more, you know, about the work that you do, learn more about Aeman Clinics, and where can they get your book?

So I can get the book anywhere. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, Walmart, anywhere great books are sold. They can learn about our work at Amanclinics.com. So Aiman, like the last word in a prayer, clinics.com or follow me on Instagram at Doc underscore Eamon or on TikTok at Doc Amen trying to create a revolution in brain health. Again, thank you, Dr. Eamon for coming on. Just, you know, he's got a very busy lifestyle and we were very honored to have him on today

and share all of his wisdom. But you can follow my lovely wife on Instagram at Tay Lautner. I don't know why when you just said wife. I was like, well, I'm your wife. Bro, you gotta get over it. We're moving on. Come on. Me at Taylor Lautner, this podcast at The Squeeze.

And my, prepare for it, wife's beautiful blog post about mental health at Lemons by Tay. And then we will link all of Dr. Amens. all the goodies down there. And also. Guys on TikTok. I know. I just learned that. Well,

you can't are. He's way cooler than me. I need to pick it up. Yeah. It's okay. You got some time. Also, be sure to email us atlaughtner.

dot thiswee's podcast at gmail.com. You guys have been sending in some great topics, guests, uh, and reach out to us with stories and, you know, things you want to see us talking about. Uh,

but as you head into the rest of your day, you're weak, I wouldn't challenge you to do something that you learned today in this podcast, whether that is, you know, for the next week, you're going to wake up every morning and say today's going to be a great day. Or for the next week, you go to bed and you talk about to yourself or to your partner, three things that went well for you. That just kind of take something that you've learned from this podcast and apply it to yourself over the next couple days and see how that affects you. Yeah, absolutely. We love you all. Thank you for listening and have a beautiful rest of your week. See you next week. This podcast has been brought to you by

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